Set building.......is it worth it?

[cjb]

When it comes to upper deck i have been set building base cards the last 4 years. I've been buying and trading common/base cards online for the last few years.

But whenever I go to ebay sold I see that complete base card sets are pretty much selling for little to nothing.

All of these complete base sets are taking up space in my closet and i'm starting to wonder if collecting complete base sets is even worth it.

What do you guys do?

[doniceage]

So you put sets together without the rookies? I am just asking as to me the UD young guns without the rookies is not a true set. Look at the young guns of the past the year Ovy and Sid came out. Those base sets would be pretty nice in price and there a few classes that are not that bad either. Of course there going to be duds from year to year but if you truly do all the base sets you have yourself covered imo. If your just putting the base sets together without the rookies it is truly worthless as you say imo. The great question is whether your collecting for fun or for profit. Many say it a hobby but many just want dollars though they say otherwise.


DON

[cjb]

No Young Guns, just base.

I just collect mostly for fun, but still I don't want to waste closet space on something that is totally worthless. I would probably hang to base cards which featured stars like mcdavid, crosby, ovi, etc, but everything else?

[doniceage]

No Young Guns, just base.

I just collect mostly for fun, but still I don't want to waste closet space on something that is totally worthless. I would probably hang to base cards which featured stars like mcdavid, crosby, ovi, etc, but everything else?

Noted! I think that would be the thing to do.

DON

[cjb]

Including shipping, I probably spend about 12 dollars a year on upper deck base cards completing 400 card sets

12 dollars is obviously not a lot of money, but still.

I'm probably better off buying a young gun for that 12 bucks rather than a set completing base cards, right?

[creasecollector]

It depends. Do you love collecting base sets? If so, then yes, it is worth it, because it means something to you in your collection.

If it doesn't, then no, not really, sadly. Not as much set collectors these days so the market to sell is that much harder, plus there is the storage issue which you've already touched on.

If you really like set collecting, maybe try collecting smaller sets insert or auto/Game-Used sets? That way it can take up less space and you can still get the set collecting enjoyment out of it.

[cjb]

I sort of like it, but with everything these days so overpriced and hard to find, I don't know if it's worth it

I usually buy 3 blasters and 6 fat packs which usually accounts for 90% of a base set. Combined all together It costs over 100 bucks.

Considering how much base sets go on ebay, I don't know if it's worth it anymore

[Savard18]

When it comes to upper deck i have been set building base cards the last 4 years. I've been buying and trading common/base cards online for the last few years.

But whenever I go to ebay sold I see that complete base card sets are pretty much selling for little to nothing.

All of these complete base sets are taking up space in my closet and i'm starting to wonder if collecting complete base sets is even worth it.

What do you guys do?

I only collect vintage pre-1989-90 and random sets I enjoy from 1990-present... I mean yea it's worth it if you enjoy the cards but modern base sets are worth pretty much nothing more than enjoyment, nor do I anticipate that will change any time soon... Well, if you're talking about just the regular UD, or UD MVP and sets like that... Obviously there are plenty of UD base sets that are worth a pretty penny like SPGU or The Cup that offer a challenge to complete and are worth the investment. I mean I know there are only 7 possible complete 2014-15 & 15-16 SPGU "true base" sets, so good luck, lol.... Obviously the "true base cards" from SPGU are uniquely serial numbered to the players jersey number.. It's the only set where you want base cards, which is why I really like SPGU...

So yea, if you enjoy the cards and enjoy the challenge of putting together sets then yea it's worth it - and like I said if you're looking for something more challenging I would suggest SPGU or The Cup and anything vintage is always fun and an investment IMO....

I will say tho with eBay and sites like SCF - it's not difficult to put sets together these days when you can just buy or trade for any base card you want online, lol so if you do collect sets you have to set some rules and resist the urge to cheat, lol... I mean back in the day before the internet it was pretty challenging to put a set together - I mean it was work.. You had to buy packs and packs and packs until you put together at least a partial set, then you had to go though all your friends cards and hopefully they had some you needed and they were willing to trade them. Of course after you did that you would have to go to the LCS and see what they had in stock, and even then you would have to go to card shows with your little list of commons and dig though some cards there, but if you needed commons - good luck, lol. Then of course by the time you finally completed the set it was almost time for the following year to be released, lol... Then there was always that kid who's parents bought them the complete factory set every year and they didn't even really like sports or collect cards - he just had the complete set "just because", lol.. Then Upper Deck comes around and produces these huge 2 series sets the size of sets in baseball..

IDK but these days I don't know why anyone would just buy a complete modern base set unless it was SPGU, The Cup, a parallel set, a YG set etc or a set that will hold value unless they just enjoy the photography - I mean isn't the point of the set the challenge of putting one together? .... Well, I suppose I'm being a little bit hypocritical considering I did buy a 1990-91 Bowman factory set recently - but I only bought it because on the back it shows how many points the player put up against every team in the NHL, so it's fun to go though them and see which players owned which teams - not to mention I like the set but had no desire to put one together buy hand, nor why would I when the factory set only costs $5 bucks? of course when I got the set it wasn't even correlated, lol..

But yea, outside of my vintage sets and the modern sets I enjoyed collecting I probably have dozens and dozens of different base sets sitting in my commons and I don't even know it, lol... Given how much product I have broke since 2016 and how small the sets are these days I'm certain I have a bunch - pretty much every Parkhurst, MVP and regular UD set from 2015-16 to the present I have to have, however I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in putting them together - nor the time... I mean if someone came to me and wanted a set I would gladly put one together for them but I really have no desire to add modern UD sets or any "introduction sets" to my PC unless they're rare or parallel sets.. I do have a few modern sets I put together when I first got back into the hobby after a 20 year hiatus in 2016, so I have a few of the 15-16 and 16-17 regular UD base sets around here somewhere - and the most recent complete set I put together was the 2018-19 SP Blue Parallel set with the "Rookie Authentics" and the "Authentic Profiles" subset. And I only did that because I got a real good deal on cases that I couldn't possibly pass up.. And since blue parallels are 1 per pack I figured it would be worth my time and potentially even challenging to put a blue parallel set together but also a parallel set would at least be desirable to some set collectors and hold some value. Despite the set only being 140 cards I didn't even bother with the regular base non-parallel set tho except for the "Rookie Authentics" and the "Authentic Profiles".... I do however have perhaps 75% of each of the "silver parallel Rookie Authentics" and the "silver parallel Authentic Profiles" which are serial numbered xxxx/1199 for the rookies and xxx/649 for the profiles and probably half of the "Rookie Authentics" jersey set.

But yea for me, I enjoy putting sets together just as long as I enjoy it.

With all of this set talk I should start putting together some UD Canvas sets because I really like those..

Wow, I lost track of time and wrote a lot about sets, lol..

[odjickfan]

When I break a few boxes of a product and I'm close to completing the base set, I try to make trades to complete the sets. I have a 3200 count box full of base sets, stuff like MVP 98-99 and UD 1 13-14 without YGs ( I have multiples of each). I also have a bunch of binders full of base sets, some I like, others I don't care much about. I want to downsize, but with the shipping costs it is not worth it. Maybe I'll try to sell locally at some point, or get a few bucks for the lot in a big cardshop in town.

I enjoy sorting the base cards, to me it's a relaxing activity. If you enjoy the trading part, maybe the 12$ you spend per year is worth it.

[Savard18]

I sort of like it, but with everything these days so overpriced and hard to find, I don't know if it's worth it

I usually buy 3 blasters and 6 fat packs which usually accounts for 90% of a base set. Combined all together It costs over 100 bucks.

Considering how much base sets go on ebay, I don't know if it's worth it anymore

That's what I buy anytime I have to go to Walmart..

I break for profit.. Ha, that would be a cool slogan to put on a shirt for those in the hobby "I break for profit", I love it - I'm going to see if I can order a custom from Tspring later..

Anyway, I don't know what your budget for cards is or if you have one, but if you like to collect sets but are also concerned about investment - just collect more high end cards. SPGU and The Cup are two sets that are profoundly difficult to complete, and if you can complete either 14-15 or 16-17 within 5 years then U da man, lol... Both those years would take a lot of time and a lot of money but it would be worth it if you managed to collect either of them because there are only 7 possible sets from each year.. I mean you could also collect the GU Jersey set, the set is a little more common but still difficult and certainly worth it from an investment perspective..

Just my .02 cents.

I mean it appears as if you enjoy collecting but are disappointed that they're not worth anything.. If SPGU and The Cup don't fit into your budget then try UD Canvas. They're not really expensive, it would take some time to complete and once the set is complete the set would certainly be worth some $$$.. I could see some collectors paying 3 figures for a complete base set - obviously much more with YG's...